The Algarve wants to become an excellent destination for culinary and wine learning programs. To achieve this goal, on the 15th and 16th of May, the mentors of the Algarve Cooking Vacations project brought together specialists, entrepreneurs and entities linked to the sector, in workshops at the Algarve Hotel and Tourism School, in Faro, and the conclusions were good: there is potential, there is an interested market and there is willingness from the players.
João Amaro, from Tertúlia Algarvia, one of the promoters of Algarve Cooking Vacations, together with the Algarve Tourism Association and the Tourism Region, explained to Sul Informação that these meetings, over two days, were «a moment of learning. We invited international and national speakers who do some things in this area, with the idea of “drinking” from their experiences. We ended up concluding, through those in the market, that the product is salable».
Wojtek Osinski, representing the World Food Travel Association, and Karolina Buczkowska Golabek, from Polish Association of Culinary Tourism, both Polish, were the international experts present.
According to João Amaro, «what they told us is that there are opportunities, the market is growing and there is a niche to explore».
Despite considering that «nothing is different from what it was before we made the workshops», João Amaro believes that «the seed of this ambitious idea remained, which involves structuring culinary tourism programs to market abroad. This is different from the experiences we can offer individually. This is a championship, but organizing several offers to create broader programs, with everything articulated, in which nothing fails, is something else».
The next step of the project is «to continue the development of the 3, 5 and 7 days programs, in partnership with agents who are here. We will visit them, assess their interest and conditions to participate and formulate an offer».
Although, at this time, Tertúlia Algarvia is in the role of “pivot” of Algarve Cooking Vacations, the objective is “to leave the animal, so that agents can organize themselves without being dependent on us. We want to be a catalyst for the idea, but we don't feel a special responsibility to be builders of many programs. We want to build programs and invite other actors to build their own programs», explains João Amaro.
This official believes that the Algarve «can become an icon» of this type of tourism. «I have been following this dynamic for about two years now, studying the programs offered in aggregators of this type of experience. In most cases I don't see programs with a level of quality that we cannot achieve. We have fantastic resources in the region. We have sea, barrocal and mountains. We have many products, there is an increasing quality in the wine. We have all the conditions to offer, in the market, programs as good as competing tourist destinations such as Spain, Italy, France or South America. Promotion is the key piece», concludes João Amaro.
João Fernandes, vice president of the Algarve Tourism Region and elected president of the organization, who attended the opening session, believes that culinary tourism promotes «the differentiation and enhancement of the destination. Gastronomy has become an important component of the tourist experience. More and more travelers experience new cultures through gastronomy and there are more and more people interested in doing so».
According to the official, “in 2012, 600 thousand trips were made with motivation based on food and wine and, if we consider it as a secondary motivation, there were 20 million trips”. To take advantage of this opportunity, «in 2014, we defined that gastronomy and wine would be a strategy, in a complementary perspective, transversal to the entire offer», he added.
in the two days of workshops, representatives of 20 agents from the region who already offer experiences in the culinary or gastronomic tourism sector participated, such as the Algarve Wine Commission, the Loulé Creative project, Saboreal, Quinta do Marco, Eating Algarve Food Tours, Odiana, Supper Chefs, Aromas de Odelouca, Quinta da Tôr, Barroca, Monterosa olive oils, Portugal4U, Dias de Aromas, Quinta dos Vales, the Creatour project, Municipality of Tavira, Look-Al, Casa Modesta, In Loco and Companhia das Culturas, besides, of course , from Tertúlia Algarvia, who demonstrated a little of what can be done in this area, inviting participants, on the second day, to cook their own lunch.
Photos: Golden Gonçalo|Sul Informação
Comments